The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry

Media Silent on Fukushima Radiation Impact in U.S.

“…My internet search skill may not be the best, but the fact that I have to search for follow-up stories is a warning sign. Journalists and the media should be paying more attention. The only recent article I could find related to radiation fallout from Fukushima was a scientific study published in November, 2012. It focuses primarily on how tracing the travel of radionuclides gives insight into atmospheric air circulation in the Northern Hemisphere….”

21 JANUARY 2013

Media Silent on Fukushima Radiation Impact in U.S.

Sometimes big news stories can only be seen by the shadows they cast. You would think that it should be easy to find detailed updates on theFukushima disaster‘s impact on our fishing industry, milk production, global radiation distribution patterns, etc. You would be mistaken. The massive media coverage following the initial disaster has fallen nearly silent. Some frustrated environmental advocates have suggested that there is a media blackout. Probably not, but media follow-up stories are few and far between these days.

In July of last year there were major stories about Fukushima and the plume of radiation reaching across the Pacific Ocean towards North America. On July 16, 2012, Deborah Dupre of the Examiner reported the following:

“As hair falls out of a Fukushima victim’s head, a new German study reports that North America’s West Coast will be the area most contaminated by Fukushima cesium of all regions in Pacific in 10 years, an “order-of-magnitude higher” than waters off Japan, according to a new German study followed by a former New York Times journalist going inside the no-entry zone and reporting radiation levels over 10 times higher than Tepco’s data.”

The article went on to say: “After 10 years, the concentrations become nearly homogeneous over the whole Pacific, with higher values in the east, extending along the North American coast with a maximum (~1 — 10 -’4) off Baja California,” a new research report states.”

Then, on August 22, 2012, Japan’s NHK News reported that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant detected radiation levels 380 times the government safety limit in a fish caught off Fukushima Prefecture.

My internet search skill may not be the best, but the fact that I have to search for follow-up stories is a warning sign. Journalists and the media should be paying more attention. The only recent article I could find related to radiation fallout from Fukushima was a scientific study published in November, 2012. It focuses primarily on how tracing the travel of radionuclides gives insight into atmospheric air circulation in the Northern Hemisphere. It is clear from the abstract that atmospheric traces of radiation from Fukushimahave already encircled the hemisphere.

We deserve to know more about what the US, Canadian and Mexican governments are doing to monitor radiation levels, track distribution rates and study how it may be impacting our food and water.

The global movement for a clean non nuclear future – theme for March 2015

The nuclear lobby, the corporate establishment, governments and the mainstream media just don’t “get it”. But the world is moving away from top-down, centrally organised, vertically structured systems. Nuclear power, even that last ditch hope, “little” nuclear reactors – all are part of the out-dated systems.

There’s still a place for some centralised systems, with renewable energy transported by the grid. But along with the now horizontally organised communications – net-working across the world, grow the flexible and versatile systems of decentralised electricity generation.

Above all – the ever more rapid spread of ideas and campaigns. Some, we know, are harmful campaigns. But the movement for clean energy is unstoppable – spreading as it does from person to person – not relying on organisation by authorities and experts.

Indigenous campaigns lead the way – whether it be in America, Australia, Malaysia – indigenous peoples have already shown how they can slow down, even stop, the nuclear juggernaut.